Chapter 171 - North Korean rabbit

Episode 171

“Ugh, no!”

Archbishop Bio, who had forced himself to his feet a moment too late after regaining his senses, was horrified to see the <Book of Fate> in Hilia’s hand.

“How dare you, who are not even an apostle, lay hands on a divine relic!”

He drew upon his divine power, heedless even of his own condition.

Among the priests, there were almost none who possessed the power to convert divine power into an offensive form.

In this era, Archbishop Bio was the only one.

“Die!”

The arrow of divine power, forged at the cost of his very life, shot forth, aiming for Hilia’s life.

But.

*Clang—!*

A blade of powerful magical power shattered every last one of the divine arrows.

As his attack came to naught, the Archbishop once more vomited a mouthful of dark red blood.

Naturally, it was Arpad who had swung his aura to protect Hilia from Archbishop Bio’s attack.

The Tear of Agrippina wrapped around his wrist shone with an unusual brilliance.

“To attempt to harm my wife while I stand here with my eyes wide open. In both wickedness and stupidity, I find it hard to believe you are one who serves a god. Does the Temple of the Celestial God fill the seat of Archbishop without even proper vetting?”

Though spitting blood, the Archbishop barely managed not to collapse.

His knees trembled as if they might buckle at any moment, yet he held on by sheer willpower, glaring at Arpad and Hilia.

“Filthy scum of a beast with tainted blood…!”

Though the words were insulting, Arpad merely snorted in contempt.

He was too busy carefully checking Hilia’s condition.

“Are you alright?”

“Don’t worry. You blocked it for me.”

Hilia smiled at Arpad, then turned her gaze to the Archbishop. The hand holding the <Book of Fate> gave a light shake.

“It seems you believed the owner of this divine relic was Evangeline?”

“…?”

Taken aback by the unexpected question, the Archbishop was bewildered.

‘What is this? Does she already know about the <Book of Fate>? How?’

Even within the Temple of the Celestial God, very few knew of the <Book of Fate>.

No, among those alive now, only Bio and Evangeline knew of the <Book of Fate>.

At least, that was what Archbishop Bio believed.

So how did Hilia know about the Book of Fate?

The Archbishop’s question was answered the next moment.

With a meaningful smile, Hilia placed her hand upon the book.

Then, a dazzling light began to flow from the center of the <Book of Fate>.

Simultaneously, resonant tones sounded from all directions.

*Oom— Oooong—, Oom, Ooooooong—!*

It wasn’t sounding from just one place.

Four distinct, subtly different resonant tones overlapped from four locations.

The Archbishop was astonished. Because two of the four resonances were coming from within his own robes.

With his unbroken left hand, he rummaged inside his robes and pulled out the two divine relics he had carefully stored in the innermost pocket.

The Mirror of Morpheneia and the Seed of Despoina.

The two divine relics were each emitting black and green light, resonating.

As if answering the vibrations emanating from the <Book of Fate>.

The other two resonant tones were flowing from two people.

Hilia, with the Star of Statalia on her finger, and Arpad, with the Tear of Agrippina on his wrist.

The divine relics of the four goddesses and the <Book of Fate>—these five relics emitted light and waves of different colors.

They blended together, achieving a perfect harmony.

It evoked a resonance akin to the most sacred of hymns.

Before this phenomenon, the Archbishop unconsciously fell to his knees.

“Im… impossible…!”

The two divine relics that had rolled from his hand emitted light, resonated, and floated into the air.

And they approached Hilia.

As if drawn to their owner.

Hilia slowly opened the old book and held it up.

Then, the book, which had been faded, decayed, and looked as if it might crumble at any moment, transformed into something like new.

Upon the pure white, clean paper, divine script shone in golden light and was inscribed.

Unlike before, it now formed complete words and sentences.

*Flick—!*

The pages rapidly turned and then stopped on one page.

There, unlike the other characters, a single line of an alien sentence was written. A sentence scrawled crookedly in dark red Hangul.

「‘The reader’ of the ‘book’ was reborn as its protagonist.」

Each character was so different from the other sentences that shone with sacred light.

It was what Evangeline had previously rewritten in Hangul.

By reading this aloud, she could assert before Archbishop Bio that she was undoubtedly an ‘apostle’.

The dark red characters slowly faded under the light of the divine script. Like shadows unable to withstand the light.

The <Book of Fate> shone more completely and beautifully than ever before.

It could not do so except before its true owner.

With a look of awe, the Archbishop crawled on his knees toward Hilia, enveloped in the holy light.

“Are you… the Apostle?”

Evangeline, who had been staring blankly at the scene unfolding before her, suddenly snapped back to her senses.

She desperately grabbed the hem of the Archbishop’s robe.

“Bio! Snap out of it! Don’t be fooled! *I* am the ‘reader’! Your apostle is also…!”

To the Archbishop, whose eyes were already blinded by the light, Evangeline was more bothersome than a moth flying into a bright flame.

“Get away!”

With an unprecedented coldness, Archbishop Bio slapped Evangeline’s hand away.

Evangeline tumbled awkwardly to the floor.

“Kyaak!”

The Archbishop crawled on his knees across the floor until he reached Hilia’s feet.

With the utmost reverence, he grasped the hem of Hilia’s skirt and tried to kiss it.

“O Apostle….”

His eyes shone with the utmost respect and affection a human could show.

They were eyes filled with a sincerity Evangeline had never once seen during her time as the Archbishop’s apostle.

‘He never once looked at me with eyes like that!’

Even while calling her apostle and pretending to protect her, there had always been an unknowable coldness in the deepest part of his gaze.

A gaze not directed at an object of awe and worship, but as if looking at a useful tool.

And it was always tinged with contempt.

Evangeline realized anew.

The fact that she had never truly been worshipped by him as an apostle.

Unlike Hilia now.

*Crack*, she heard a thin, splitting sound.

Her world was something precariously balanced on thin glass.

As the foundation beneath her feet began to shatter, everything she had built without a base was collapsing helplessly.

Like grains of sand slipping through her fingers.

A vast, endless despair swallowed Evangeline.

Suddenly, Evangeline felt a sharp, excruciating pain pierce her abdomen.

“Ugh! Agh!”

Unconsciously scratching at the floor, she realized her fingertips were strangely damp.

Groping, she felt the hem of her skirt.

The light radiating from Hilia and the divine relics was quite intense, allowing her to discern not just silhouettes but detailed shapes and colors.

Evangeline noticed that the substance staining her skirt was an ominous dark red liquid.

“…!”

* * *

A conversation with the Archbishop from my second life came to mind.

“…To still not admit your sins, it seems your repentance is insufficient.”

“You… from the beginning, you weren’t trying to help me, you were on Evangeline’s side…!”

“Isn’t that obvious? No one would extend a helping hand to the likes of you.”

Back then, I had truly trusted and followed the Archbishop.

To the point of confessing the fact of my regression.

But that trust was repaid only with the worst betrayal.

And now, this time, he was calling me ‘Apostle,’ crawling toward me, trying to kiss the hem of my skirt.

An intense disgust surged.

I had already seen him calling me ‘Apostle’ and showing reverence.

What had happened in the life before my regression, shown to me by Artanus.

Before Evangeline tried to erase my existence by rewriting the <Book of Fate>.

He had apologized to me, saying he had been deceived by Evangeline.

The same thing was repeating itself.

But the emotions with which I received this situation then and now were worlds apart.

Beyond anger, a sickening revulsion rose.

Without thinking, I exerted force and pulled the hem of my skirt free from the Archbishop’s grasping fingers.

“Don’t call me Apostle. I hate it. It’s horrifying.”

“!”

The gray pupils of Archbishop Bio, which had been shining with mad joy and ecstasy, were instantly dyed with darkness.

It seemed a despair, as if the sun had been given and then snatched away again, filled him.

‘Not my concern.’

I took a couple of steps back.

Not so much from fear or threat, but to avoid something filthy and repulsive.

It seemed my feelings were properly conveyed to Archbishop Bio.

His face was like that of a child abandoned by God and plunged into despair.

He stretched out his hand wretchedly and desperately. Like a plant in the shade stretching its stem toward the sunlight.

This was not permitted.

*Thud!*

Arpad’s blade mercilessly pierced the back of the Archbishop’s hand.

A murderous intent swirled in his red eyes.

“Hilia said she dislikes it. Are your ears blocked?”